GOVERNMENT ALLOWS LOAN SHARKS TO ROAM FREE

It is now 1073 days since the Turnbull Government pledged to review the Small Amount Credit Contract (SACC) laws, and nothing has been done.

The Government’s 1000-day disregard for pay-day loan sharks is contemptible.

In the meantime, households are forced into payday loans and face fees and interest rates as high as 884 per cent.

Unemployed people make up to 40 per cent of those who enter into loans and one quarter receive more than 50 per cent of their income from Centrelink.

Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs Madeleine King MP and Federal Member for Oxley Milton Dick MP said that the Liberals had a disgraceful record in failing to help vulnerable consumers of loan sharks.

Despite the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Revenue and Finance both pledging support for the 24 recommendations from the SACC review we have yet to see any government action.

A payday loan is a small amount lent at a high interest rate with an agreement it will be repaid in a short time. About 650,000 stressed homes hold a payday loan.

In March, the Turnbull Government again demonstrated its contempt of vulnerable consumers when not a single Liberal or National MP bothered to turn up to debate the SACC Reform Bill.

The National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Small Amount Credit Contract and Consumer Lease Reforms) Bill 2018 was debated in the Federation Chamber on 26 March.

The Bill was a word-for-word copy of the Government’s own exposure draft of legislation to reform payday loans and rent-to-buy schemes, which they released last year. 

Labor introduced the Government’s own bill as a private member’s bill in February after it became clear the Government wanted to sweep it under the rug.